Newbie Bavarian Wheat Question

[jc5066]

I am brewing my first batch of beer. Almost a week in. I am doing a Raspberry Wheat. It is a really simple kit. Basically CBW Bavarian Wheat extract, hop pellets, & yeast. Then you ad raspberry flavoring before bottling. I know this is a very simple kit but I really enjoyed the sample I had from it.

I have been thinking and wondering how you still keep wheat in the beer and still get rid of the byproducts from fermentation. Does the wheat continue to be suspended in the beer even though the byproducts settle? Otherwise how to you keep the wheat in the beer yet get rid of the yeast and other nasty stuff?

 

[LLBeanJ]

The heavy stuff (trub from the boil, hops, most of the yeast) will settle to the bottom of the fermentor after fermentation subsides. The lighter stuff, such as wheat proteins and the less flocculent yeast will remain in suspension for quite a while and will transfer with your beer when you bottle it. Also, if you're bottle conditioning (carbing), you'll need some yeast to consume the priming sugar and create CO2. There's just no getting around it unless you filter your beer. However, with a German wheat (hefeweizen) you want all of that stuff anyway. After some time in the bottle, they will settle out, but common practice for the style is to rouse the sediment that forms in the bottom of the bottle and pour it in your glass with the rest of the beer. For styles that should pour clear, everything is the same, but rather than rousting the sediment, instead you do a careful pour so that the sediment remains in the bottom of the bottle.

 

[unionrdr]

Yup. Wheat beer yeasts tend to be low flocculation types,so the beer stays a lil hazy (but not cloudy!) when you bottle it. And in Germany,they do indeed pour the beer,then swirl the yeast dregs & pour that in. It's the traditional way to drink wheat beers.

 

[jc5066]

Thanks. That answers my question. I knew I should wheat in my beer and I knew I didn't want the trub from the fermentation.